THE THIRD PYTHIAN ODE.
TO THE SAME HIERO, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE SINGLE-HORSE RACE, GAINED IN THE TWENTY-SIXTH PYTHIAD.
ARGUMENT.
When the intelligence of Hiero's victory in the Pythian games was reported to him, that monarch laboured under a grievous disorder.—Hence the friendly poet takes occasion to express his wish that the centaur Chiron, the preceptor ot Æsculapius in the healing art, could return to life, in order to restore health to the afflicted Hiero.—This leads to the fabulous story of Apollo and Coronis, to whose clandestine love he owed his birth.—He then proceeds to the victor's praises, and prays to the gods for his continued prosperity.—Then follows a consolatory exhortation to bear adversity with an equal mind, derived from the uncertain condition of mortality, and the constant interruption to earthly happiness; which truth he illustrates by the examples of Cadmus' and Peleus; interweaving the mythological story of the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis.—He concludes by recommending equanimity from his own example.
Oh! could to life my anxious care
Chiron Phillynides recall;
(If my weak tongue may form a prayer
Breathed for the common good of all;)
Celestial Saturn's potent child, 5
To rule o'er Pelion's valleys still,
Howe'er in form like monster wild,
Yet men approved his friendly will.
He nurtured once the hero kind,
Asclepias, whose assuaging art 10
For the rack'd limbs relief could find,
And bid each torturing pain depart. 13
Him e'er by Eilithyia's aid
